There have been a variety of banks designed to provide an extended, viewable path along which coins travel before reaching a coin storage reservoir.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 433,736 and 4,762,512 provide banks which have viewable extended spiral paths along which the coins travel. Though these banks provide viewable coin paths, they do not provide for great flexibility in the design of the bank since the path has a substantial foot print and would not accommodate embedding in a structure such as an animal's neck.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,656 and U.S. Design Pat. No. 251,323 provide banks with extended coin paths where coins will tumble down the coin path, flipping end over end as they travel down the path. These paths again have a substantial foot print for the coin path.
U.S. Pat. No. 517,071 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,807 teach the use of zigzag paths where the coins roll on their rim down a series of ramps and are transferred from ramp to ramp by impacting a vertical wall and dropping to the track below. The coins are maintained in a vertical position by a front plate which is transparent. The coins are fed into the bank by rolling along one ramp and dropping onto a ramp below. These ramps are arranged to provide a slow lazy rolling motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,238 teaches the use of multiple paths providing alternative branches along which the coins travel and again uses a transparent front panel to secure the coins which travel along the path. The use of the multiple paths of the '238 patent as well as the paths of the '071 patent and the '807 patent results in an extended foot print for the path; they are not well suited for banks in which the coin path resides in restricted areas such as passing down the throat of an animal bank.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,002,313 provides a chime bank which will play one or more notes as the coin progresses along a path which leads to a coin storage reservoir. A series of ramps are provided with retaining walls for maintaining the coin on the ramps. At the end of the ramps are chimes which form vertical surfaces which, when impacted, provide a tone and reverse the direction of the coin. The slopes of the ramps disclosed are shallow and assure that the tones resulting from impact of the chimes are distinct and spatially separated so that a melody can be played. Maintaining the slopes shallow will also reduce the likelihood of derailment of the coins as they leave an upper ramp, impact the chime and engage a lower ramp.
While there have been numerous animal banks, such as disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. 291,938, these animal banks do not have a serpentine path into which coins are fed.
Thus, there is no teaching of a bank with an open serpentine path that will positively retain a coin in the track as it slides and rolls down an inclined path and there is no teaching of an animal coin bank having a serpentine coin path that will give the perception that the coin is being swallowed.